Consider the input:
=sec1=
some-line
some-other-line
foo
bar=baz
=sec2=
c=baz
If I wish to process only =sec1= I can for example comment out the section by:
sed -e '/=sec1=/,/=[a-z]*=/s:^:#:' < input
... well, almost.
This will comment the lines including "=sec1=" and "=sec2=" lines, and the result will be something like:
#=sec1=
#some-line
#some-other-line
#
#foo
#bar=baz
#
#=sec2=
c=baz
My question is: What is the easiest way to exclude the start and end lines from a /START/,/END/ range in sed?
I know that refining the "s:::" clause can give a solution in this specific case, but I am after the generic solution here.
In "Sed - An Introduction and Tutorial" Bruce Barnett writes: "I will show you later how to restrict a command up to, but not including the line containing the specified pattern.", but I was not able to find where he actually show this.
In the "USEFUL ONE-LINE SCRIPTS FOR SED" Compiled by Eric Pement, I could find only the inclusive example:
# print section of file between two regular expressions (inclusive)
sed -n '/Iowa/,/Montana/p' # case sensitive